100 years ago today in Spokane: Editorials call on immigrant Bolshevists and radicals to be deported

The Spokane Daily Chronicle continued its unrelenting editorial attacks on what it deemed “undesirable” aliens.

“Spokane always has extended a welcome hand to all of those who wished to make this city their home and work for the good of the community,” said the editors. “Fair play always has been meted out to the foreigner as well as to the American. When any man from a foreign land sees fit to attack the government, refuse to obey the laws of the commonwealth, or preach the doctrine of bolshevism, then it is time for the person to be conducted to the coast and his face turned toward the country from which he came.”

The Chronicle was hardly unique in this attitude. A wave of anti-Bolshevist and anti-foreigner sentiment had swept the U.S. following the war and the upheavals in Russia. In the Northwest, the Centralia shootings had also launched a new wave of anti-Wobbly and anti-radical sentiment.

“The sooner the country is cleaned up and the bolshevik menace is stamped out, the quicker will the nation return to a normal basis,” said the paper.

In our region, federal immigration officials were considering several deportation cases. Sam Crane, a Canadian and former attorney with radical ties, and John Johnson, a “Scandinavian,” were both being held in Spokane County jail and awaiting a decision on deportation.

In Wallace, one Russian and two “Croatians or Austrians,” were being held in jail on suspicion of being Wobblies and communists.

However, the danger of false accusation was illustrated by the case of a Hillyard railroad car repairer named Peter Fedorchuck, a Russian accused of being a communist. He flatly denied being a communist. The so-called communist literature seized from his home was found to be “religious propaganda, not political.” He was released on his own recognizance.